by Andrew Beard | Mar 3, 2025 | Easter, Words from Pastor Andrew
Right after we sort out the candy, take down the cobwebs and spooky decorations, and toss the rotting pumpkin from our front porch, Sarah is ready to decorate for Christmas and start drinking Peppermint Mochas.
I, on the other hand, am a traditionalist. I need to wait another four weeks or so, watch Santa glide past Macy’s on a Thursday morning, and eat an unhealthy amount of carbs before I’m ready to prepare my heart and mind for Christmas.
We can’t wait to celebrate and remember Jesus stepping into creation. We jump at the opportunity to look toward the little town of Bethlehem. We love the traditions of counting down the days and indulging in the treats of the season.
But Easter feels different.
by Andrew Beard | Feb 18, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
I don’t really remember learning how to ride a bike. I have vague memories of being in front of our house on our dead-end street, trying short distances with no training wheels… and then, suddenly, I could do it.
Years later, at Christmas with Sarah’s family, her brother Josh had bought a kid’s bike for our nephew and was removing the pedals. I didn’t understand why, but apparently, there was a growing idea that if we teach kids to ride a bike without focusing on pedaling, they will find their balance naturally as they coast. Then you add the pedals back on, and suddenly they can ride.
Years later again, when we had kids, we lived in Dallas on very busy streets. Our kids got bikes for Christmas, but we never felt good about trying to teach them to ride without training wheels because everywhere we went… there were so many cars and people.
by Andrew Beard | Jan 29, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
Over the years, Sarah and I have put together puzzles over holidays or times with family and friends. We’ve never been hard-core “puzzle people”…like we didn’t have a puzzle table or special puzzle mats to build on or any of the other puzzle accessories people collect. We’d do it here and there and enjoy it.
We hosted our extended family for a reunion back in October, and when they were here, we got 2 puzzles of the area for people to put together. My family loved them! Fun puzzles, cool design, and doable in the short amount of time we were together. On one of the puzzles, we got to the end, and there was a missing piece. There were nearly 40 of us…so it is not out of the question that someone took it to get the pride of dropping in the final piece. The people that (nearly) finished it did it late the last night and searched high and low to find the missing piece. No luck. Many assumed, myself included, that my younger son had taken it so he could have that privilege…he did start the puzzle days before, so it was a logical conclusion he was saving the final more for himself.
The next morning, we were cleaning up and packing up, and right before we put away the (nearly) finished puzzle, we slid it slightly, and the table had slight gaps between the wood pieces…and there between the wood, there it was. The final piece.
by Andrew Beard | Jan 22, 2025 | The Tower
We have journeyed through sabbath and prayer and now we take on fasting. This tower is dedicated to the why’s and how’s of what February holds for our journey through fasting and how you can participate no matter where you are!
by Andrew Beard | Jan 14, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
Last week I had the opportunity to help with an event at the school my kids go to. It was an activity where they practiced social skills and were learning how to be confident, well spoken, thoughtful, kind, courteous, and you know…be good functioning people in society…it turns out that is necessary in life.
It was amazing. These middle schoolers were unbelievably articulate, well thought out, and courteous.
I loved being there and helping out
Before the day we were told to grade these kids hard but fair. Don’t just give them a free pass. Help them learn what they need to work on. Very quickly I learned, golly these kids are good. I guess I need to adjust the curve and grade even harder than I thought so I don’t just give everyone nearly perfect scores.
So I did…because you know…I’m a rule follower.
